美国国家公共电台 NPR Dancer Preserves The Work Of Black Choreographers, In One Video At A Time

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

We're going to spend some time now talking about art and artists. In a few minutes, we're going to give some thought to how we should react when we discover that an artist we love has done something we think is wrong. But first - preserving important works of art. Classical music, of course, is preserved in scores, theater in scripts. But things get more complicated when it comes to preserving dance.

Colorado Public Radio's Stephanie Wolf introduces us to a dancer working to make sure the legacies¹ of nearly a dozen black choreographers are not forgotten.

STEPHANIE WOLF, BYLINE³: Dancer Gesel Mason was in her 20s when she began emailing black choreographers she admired asking them to create a solo for her. To her surprise, many of them said yes.

GESEL MASON: I did not know that I was making my life's work when I (laughter) started it. I was just really interested in dancing with some choreographers.

WOLF: For 15 years, she's performed dances like Bebe Miller's "Rain."

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Vocalizing).

WOLF: She's called the combined effort "No Boundaries: Dancing The Visions Of Contemporary Black Choreographers." She's performed these solos around the country - sometimes as many as seven in a single show.

MASON: Now, in my 40s, I can't keep doing this.

WOLF: As Mason gets older, so do the choreographers. Broadway and modern dance choreographer² Donald McKayle died in April at 87. He taught Mason a dance he created in 1948 called "Saturday's Child." It's danced to a poem about poverty.

(SOUNDBITE ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MASON: Some are teethed on a silver spoon.

WOLF: That gives urgency to Mason's new focus - a digital archive of these dances. It highlights 10 black choreographers relatively⁴ unknown to the general public. Amma Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin is an assistant professor at the University of Georgia. She's helping⁵ Mason.

AMMA GHARTEY-TAGOE KOOTIN: Folks, when they think of black choreographers of the 20th century or contemporary black choreographers - for mainstream⁶ folks, it's Alvin Ailey. Am I missing somebody? Debbie Allen if they're coming from, like, the "Fame" generation.

WOLF: In dance, choreography is typically passed down generation to generation through personal contact. There's also a written notation⁷ called Labanotation, but it requires special training to read and write it. Video is another way to preserve choreography. Gesel Mason has collected hours of performance and rehearsal⁸ footage. Mason also wants to film these dances from multiple angles and zoom⁹ in to catch the tiniest of details. That's less common.

MASON: You can get close, and you can see the fingertips, and you can see the sweat.

WOLF: She's also recorded interviews with each choreographer. They talked about their lives and what motivates them to create dances. Here's a clip from contemporary choreographer Kyle Abraham.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

KYLE ABRAHAM: Sometimes, I do want to make something that's just pretty. But, more times than not, I'm really interested in work that can kind of spark questions, passion, love, empathy, anger - just get people charged in some capacity.

WOLF: Eventually, Mason would like to add even more artists.

MASON: Because we know that this is just a small snapshot of what's going on in regards to black choreographers.

WOLF: Tina Curran is an expert in dance documentation at the University of Texas at Austin. She says Mason's archive is a great example of what she calls living legacy¹⁰ of dance. The totality of the project's research, video and interviews makes it invaluable¹¹.

TINA CURRAN: The fact that she's digging down in creating such a rich and diverse archive - it's critical. It's so important to our field.

WOLF: Mason will actually move from Boulder¹², Colo., to Austin this summer to take a job at UT. The university has offered her money to build the archive of black choreographers. She hopes to get at least part of this archive online within the next year.

For NPR News, I'm Stephanie Wolf.